Wednesday, December 26. 2012
 We always say that "freedom is messy" and that "Freedom is not for sissies." From Sultan's A Perfect Prison:
Bloomberg is a living model of the glass half-full theory of human behavior. This is after all a man who banned large sodas, and if you can't trust people to have large sodas, then you can't trust them to have cold medicines, let alone guns. Where does it end? It ends the same place - it ends in a prison. Nowhere. If you believe that people are basically bad, then every problem you identify is met with another control measure until you control absolutely everything.
(Hizzoner, of course, has been surrounded by armed men since he got rich on Wall St, long before becoming Mayor. Must be nice to afford armed bodyguards and armed drivers of your Lincoln Town Car while you sip single malt Scotch in the back with your latest squeeze while denouncing legal gun owners.)
The eternal problem with widespread freedom from state control is that some small minority of people can't or won't handle freedom, personal independence, self-control. For whatever reason, they do not buy into our social contract or are unable to fulfill it. Perhaps they never even heard of it, never were informed that a person makes a deal to be a citizen here and that it is a historically-unique privilege, responsibility, and challenge. How come nobody told them that life in America is supposed to be difficult and risky, but filled with opportunity? It's not about safety and comfort and was never meant to be based on anything but virtue and freedom. Our streets are not paved with gold, but with blood, sweat, and tears.
These failures of a minority of bad apples to get with the program invite the state to step in in an effort to provide controls and supports externally. Thus we all lose a bit of freedom each time some jerk, idiot, sociopath, addict, or lunatic abrogates his American dignity and fails at running his own life in the manner of an honest, free, law-abiding and upstanding citizen. It's a shame - and wrong - that the least moral and worse-behaving of our population should have the power to deprive freedoms from the vast majority of decent citizens who aim to construct honorable, dignified, and independent lives by following their consciences or God's will as best they can.
Go ahead and ask me why I might want a 30-clip magazine, or a Big Gulp Coke. Well, I don't really want those things, but I don't want them forbidden me. I have a handgun carry permit, but I don't walk around armed all the time. Rarely, in fact. I might as well ask why you need a car that goes 110 mph, when car deaths in the US are far higher than gun deaths (32,000, vs 600 deaths by rifle - half of them suicides and others accidents).
(For other stats: Swimming pool drownings in the US: Approx. 3000 per year, mostly young kids. Backyard pools frighten me far more than guns do. I hate pools and I like guns... Also, firearm murders with illegal handguns thus far in the gun-banning village of Chicago, 2012: 470.)
Leftist control freaks often try to find signs of "market failure" to justify government intrusion into the free and voluntary exchange of goods and services. Similarly, they seek signs of "freedom failure" with the same goals. It's about power of the elites over us little people - always for our own good, of course, because we are "the masses." However, there are no "masses" in America and there is no aristocracy of any sort, political or otherwise.
Isn't obesity a "freedom failure"? Of course it is. North Korea has no such problem because they enforce "food control." So my final thought on this topic tonight: Why does the government allow Medicare-aged people to be overweight? 500,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease per year. Surely some controls are called for to address this crisis of excess freedom which results in so much disability and death, and burdens everyone else with their medical bills. Easy for the government to fix that: just offer to pay for medical care based on your BMI. If it's over 27, no free doctors. They are heading that way in the UK already. My view is that if you want to be heavy, do so and enjoy it. Not on my nickel, though. My freedom to life and property should trump all else because it is a gift from God.
Image is via Theo
I presume you heard the tragic story of how a large golden eagle almost carried away a young child and devoured it. Controversy immediately followed, of course, as the usual two sides faced off against each other. On one side was PETA, echoing my own personal belief that eagles have the right to eat, too.
On the other side are people who apparently want to see eagles starve to death. I'm honestly not sure why these virulent animal haters are even given a say in the matter, but such is the nature of a modern society that allows the voices of all to be heard.
The seizure of the child was caught on smartphone. I think it should be obvious that this is not for the squeamish. Management strongly urges all liberals and young children to immediately leave the room.
Luckily, there's not a lot of blood.
I think it's safe to say the eagle learned a valuable lesson that day in nutritional management.
But for an inside look into this horrific nightmare, let's go to the video:
I thought it amusing that both sides of the interview said something quite naive. "Did it surprise you that everybody thought it was real?" No, you mental midget, six people spent over 300 hours on it so it would look fake!But one of the guy's comments was even more innocent. "We never thought people would analyze it frame-by-frame." Guys, I was analyzing it frame-by-frame the first time I watched it expecting it to be fake! Not in the exact sense he means, but as an acknowledged video guru, I know what to look for. I bought the whole thing right up to the close-up of the afternoon snack kid and saw how big he was. My next thought was, "That snack sure looks big for a squirrel!"
I suppose it was also a point of naivete when the teacher set the grade of 'A' at a mere 100,000 views. When something goes viral these days, it's almost always in the millions.
But huge kudos for an outstanding fake-out.
Kids these days, huh?
 Among the more irritating manifestations of political correctness, at least to this historian, is the attempt to replace the terms AD and BC with CE and BCE.
Tom Brewton's new book: The Liberal Jihad: The Hundred Year War Against The Constitution
How the Welfare State Traps the Poor in Dependency, the British Version
Time for Some Common-Sense Publishing Controls - What would Second Amendment bloviators say if we applied their logic to the First Amendment?
Prof. Richard Parncutt: Death Penalty for Global Warming Deniers?
Prince Harry in Taliban 'kill' mission
Driscoll: Two CNNs In One
I nominate Ann Althouse for the Light of Reason Award.
Douthat: Gun debate is emblematic of our dysfunctional politics
Glenn Reynolds is still awaiting answers from gun-control advocates Rupert Murdoch and Michael Bloomberg about the guns used by their security details in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre.
CHANGE: In 2012, Generation Y voted to impoverish themselves
With full implementation of Obamacare, the bureaucratic cost will rise to ≈50%.
Gun-Control Today; Fat-Control Tomorrow?
Merry Christmas: a (partial) list of Obamacare taxes, fees
The Leftist delusion of a world without danger
Fathers disappear from households across America-Big increase in single mothers
Tenth most popular request for kids' Christmas gift: a 'dad'
For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall
With Election Over, Americans Find They Were Duped By Democrats And Obama
Bill Whittle: The Obama Administration Is Deliberately Attempting to Destroy This Economy
Steyn: Tapper’s promotion to CNN a lesson for the ‘J-school zombies’ in the WH press corps
JFK Conspiracy Theorists Seek Inclusion in Ceremony
California’s Largest Corporation is Headed for the Exit
Timbuktu: When the Saints Go Marching In
Big Red One, Second Brigade to Africa
Nigeria: Muslims murder six Christians at Christmas service
The Waqf is continuing to destroy Jewish antiquities on the Temple Mount in a direct violation of a court ruling, new report finds.
Christmas in Indonesia: Savage Muslim mob pelts Christian worshippers with rotten eggs, bags of urine and dung
Christianity 'close to extinction' in Middle East
Postcard from Myanmar, the world Obama left behind after visit
Tuesday, December 25. 2012
No, not that gift, silly.
That was just the warm-up.
This is a serious gift.
After first learning the tragic news that this is the last Christmas in America from News Junkie, then hearing that this is one of the most depressing, gloomy Christmases that many can remember from Barrister, then discovering that our modern Christmas is just a cheap, commercialized mockery of its former glory from Bird Dog, I realized something.
I realized I had a very special Christmas gift for these very special people.
The gift is, thankfully, you're all dead wrong.
It may not feel like it, but 2012 has been the greatest year in the history of the world. That sounds like an extravagant claim, but it is borne out by evidence. Never has there been less hunger, less disease or more prosperity. The West remains in the economic doldrums, but most developing countries are charging ahead, and people are being lifted out of poverty at the fastest rate ever recorded. The death toll inflicted by war and natural disasters is also mercifully low. We are living in a golden age.
You're very welcome. Merry Christmas, after all.
And greetings from the incredibly awesome state of California.
You remember California, don't you? From the tall virgin forests of the Trinity Alps in the far north, to the Death Valley deserts in the far south. From the eerie volcanic fields of Mt. Lassen in the Sierras, to the pristine white talcum powder sand of Pismo Beach on the central coast. From the majesty of the sharp, towering mountains above Lake Tahoe, to the greatest agricultural valley the world has ever known.
You know. That California.
Current temperature back home in the Florida Keys?
A delightful 71.
Current temperature here in Palo Alto, California?
46.
I sure wish that global warming stuff would hurry up and get going. Overnight would be preferred.
Best Christmas wishes to our readers all around the world.
Monday, December 24. 2012
 My pic is the Congregational Church of lovely and quaint Lyme, CT last week.
Radio Flyer Car
The Sadness Of NPR Christmas
Have a Merry, guilt-free Christmas.
D.C. has power and wealth while the rest of the country suffers. It's not a question of who the odds favor.
The federal government has emerged as one of the most potent factors driving income inequality in the United States - especially in the nation's capital.
Feminism and Free Choice
Do women need marriage anymore?
Obama Uses Funeral Service to Talk About Himself
Gun control advocates are utopians. Their perspective is that, if guns are no longer readily available, that violence will evaporate.
Should Americans Learn From Israeli Gun Laws
‘How Dare You Let Your Mental Illness Disturb My Gun-Control Narrative?’
Dalrymple: It is not likely that psychiatrists could have prevented the massacre.
Police Officers in School Don’t Work, That’s Why Obama’s School is Hiring One
Gun Control Advocates' Loudest Voices Are Most Heavily Protected
Social Security and Medicare Are Already Welfare
Tax code milking cash cow dry
DEMOCRATIC OFFICIALS in Maryland, NJ, NY and Massachusetts Face Prison Time for Voter Fraud
New Study Finds Democrats Fully to Blame for Subprime Mortgage Crisis that Caused 2008 Financial Disaster
Sen Tim Scott: A party that doesn't think with its skin
Is Shear serious? The GOP should abandon it’s principles because Obama is more popular?
Tom Friedman's view:
...if Republicans continue to be led around by, and live in fear of, a base that denies global warming after Hurricane Sandy and refuses to ban assault weapons after Sandy Hook — a base that would rather see every American’s taxes rise rather than increase taxes on millionaires — the party has no future. It can’t win with a base that is at war with math, physics, human biology, economics and common-sense gun laws all at the same time.
This Just In: John Wayne Is Dead
The crisis of American conservatism
Moving from an Emboldened Left in 2012 to a Legal Insurrection in 2013
Sunday, December 23. 2012
Saturday, December 22. 2012
It is no "assault weapon." "AR" means Armalite Rifle, not assault rifle. It's good for target shooting and for small game and critters like coyotes and groundhogs. Some consider it a lady's rifle, but might best be termed "gender-neutral." It is easily customizable. Very popular rifle. I think what most people understand the term "assault rifle" to imply is an automatic rifle, like a Tommy Gun or an AK-47.
In the NYT: Rifle Used in Killings, America’s Most Popular, Highlights Regulation Debate
The press seems usually not to to get that the vast majority of firearms are "semi-automatic." As we have mentioned here, a cowboy six-shooter is semi-automatic. As Rudy Guiliani said yesterday, a would-be killer can kill with anything no matter what it looks like. Killers in the US generally use 9 mm. handguns.
As this guy notes:
...what makes the AR-15 prime for these attacks? Simply the cosmetic make up of the gun - no less, no more. The AR-15 uses modern synthetic stocks, which make it look (to some) more menacing, but I am guessing you probably own a firearm right now that sports a non-wood stock. The AR-15 also has a detachable magazine, but I am also guessing you probably own at least one .22 rifle with the same feature. Some claim that the AR-15 can easily be converted to fully automatic. Well, it cannot... at least no more so than any other semi-auto firearm and doing so is illegal to boot. So it is easy to see that an AR-15, aside from sheer looks, is really no different than a standard semi-auto firearm you probably already own.
This is interesting: The results of the Gun Free School Zone act’s passage have been devastating.
OK, the photos. On top is a Remington semi-auto 30.06, below is an AR-15 semi-auto. Which looks scarier?
Friday, December 21. 2012
A grim view of the future at Zero Hedge: The last Christmas in America
I for one will not mourn the last Christmas in America. Good riddance to the flaunting of borrowed money and the heedless, desperate purchase of valueless "goods" as gifts for an insolvent nation awash in too much of everything but common sense, integrity, gratitude, accountability and healthy living.
Thursday, December 20. 2012
By the way, in case no one's mentioned it, this is your last day on earth. The event takes place tonight at 2:12 EST. Personally, I'll miss the ol' girl. You get kind of attached to a planet after so many years.
A very slick countdown clock is here. For just a silly project, the Sun-Sentinal did a terrific job. Click on 'How it works' to see what I mean. The Mayans were way ahead of the curve.
After the dust settles and the lava hardens, I'll be going back to my home state of California for a week. I'm bringing the laptop & wireless so I won't be out of touch. As you might recall, the last time I was out there was just before my operation, possibly saying 'goodbye forever' to family and friends. Not the happiest of times. I thought it appropriate that I revisit everyone now that the tidings are good. I'm still facing some serious medical costs, though, so if anyone is feeling the Christmas spirit, a small donation to my medical fund would be very appreciated.
Current temperature here in the Florida Keys? A delightful 76. I'm sitting here in my swim trunks with every door and hatch on the boat open.
Current temperature in Palo Alto, CA, in the heart of the S.F. Peninsula?
40.
Nobody said this would be pretty. On the other hand, I suppose it beats 1,250 degrees.
Well, good luck, everyone!
 The Daily Routines of Famous Writers
Judge Bork on Martinis
Urban Renewal, Corporate-Style - Zappos.com founder tries to resurrect downtown Las Vegas.
Work as Service and Servant
Today's history lesson: The Children of Hannibal
Howard Zinn in the College Classroom
This Is Not a Profile of Nassim Taleb
"France psychiatrist guilty over murder by patient."
Climate Alarmism: The Beginning of the End?
It’s Time for Lawyers to Loosen Their Grip on the American Economy
What America's trial lawyers want from Santa
Your Scary-Ass Chart of the Day
The truth about the AR-15 (h/t Insty)
Bowman:
...can we say, hands on hearts, that the state is wise today to be unafraid of its people? Or, for that matter, that the people even want to be trusted, as opposed to being taken care of, by the state?
10 myths about the Connecticut shootings - The horrific Sandy Hook massacre has prompted a wave of ill-informed comment about backward Americans.
Our reader Richard's thoughts about gun regulation
Sultan:
To understand the left's position on nearly any issue, imagine a 20th Century American and then take away accountability. Assume that the individual is helpless and stupid, has little to no control over his own behavior and is only responding to stimuli and functions in a purely reactive capacity. Then use that data to come up with a response to anything from kids getting fat to a football player shooting his wife to terrorists firing rockets at Israel. The only possible answer to reactive behavior is to find the thing being reacted to and condemn it.
If you want to fake being a member of the left on any topic and in any setting, master this simple phrase. "But we have to look at the root causes to see who is really responsible." Congratulations, you can now get by anywhere from Caracas to Brussels to Berkeley.
Wednesday, December 19. 2012
 The cacophany from the gun nuts is getting intense these days, and very little of it makes logical sense to me. I spoke with a colleague gun nut this week who told me that she'd be afraid even to touch a gun. I promised to take her to the range to get over this phobia. Hoplophobia. Probably a mental illness. A firearm is just a pipe and a hammer.
People talk about "dangerous semi-automatic" firearms. What? A cowboy six-shooter is semi-automatic, and so are most duck-hunting shotguns. Automatic firearms are illegal for civilians in the US. I don't think they know what they are talking about. (My error - were illegal but are not now. Missed that change. Machine guns are illegal.)
Guns are dangerous? Gee wiz. Who knew? I thought large bottles of Coke and table salt and globalistical warmening were dangerous.
Now, I will not get hysterical about this topic because I know that nobody is going to take away my guns or my (heavily-vetted) concealed-carry permit. It's politically impossible. Just one point: How come the gun nuts hate ordinary people having guns - any guns - while it seems fine for "important Liberal people" - like Sen Feinstein, who carries or used to, or Harry Reid, who has carried most of his life, or Mayor Bloomberg, surrounded by armed bodyguards despite his horror of guns, or a President surrounded by a small army of weaponry, or Oprah with her armed bodyguards, etc etc.?
This is America. We're all equal. I'm important too. All of my kids can handle firearms. Basic life skill, same as swimming and tennis and trigonometry and land navigation.
During college I worked at Jack Frost Dry Goods, a fabric and yarn store in Bedford-Stuyvesant. The owner contributed extra cloth to the Little Sisters of the Poor in the nearby Bushwick neighborhood. My uncle had owned a nursing home in the Bronx when I was much younger than that, and the Little Sisters facility and care was superior.
The Little Sisters of the Poor are another example of religious based charitable organizations whose scruples and finances would be violated by Obamacare's requirement that it provide medical insurance that includes contraception and medical treatments that cause sterility or can cause abortions. Aside from its 300 sisters working in their facilities, non-users but still charged for the increased premium, the Little Sisters hires without regard to religion and cares for people without regard to religion. So, according to Obamacare, the Little Sisters of the Poor does not qualify for exemption.
Continue reading "Obama Vs. Little Sisters of the Poor"
I would think the NAACP would be embarassed about this statement, with its implication that the main black policy agenda is to get stuff from the government.
 Falconry season in Qatar
Video shows golden eagle snatching toddler — almost — from Montreal park
Temper tantrums become a diagnosis
Is Your Bank Account at Risk from ‘Project Blitzkrieg’
There's More Than History at Stake for NYC's First Pre-Fab High-Rise
Most Outrageous Reporting of 2012
Professor calls for murder of NRA president
Cooling Down the Fears of Climate Change - Evidence points to a further rise of just 1°C by 2100. The net effect on the planet may actually be beneficial.
Peak Farming?
Slowing population growth. The restoration of massive swaths of farmland to nature. Increasing world food supplies. Lower food prices for billions of people. Massive water supplies beneath the driest deserts. Abundant oil and gas. The 21st century is looking like it will be a very different kind of place than the greens and Malthusians have warned us about.
A Brief History of American Prosperity - An entrepreneurial culture and the rule of law have nourished the nation’s economic dynamism.
Egypt Democratically Adopts an Anti-Western Dictatorship
U.S. Policy is Making Syria into an Anti-Western, Antisemitic Islamist State
Iraq: One Year After Withdrawal
Tuesday, December 18. 2012
 I have nothing new to post about today.
It is a difficult time in central Connecticut, but it is almost Christ's birthday party. Being fresh out of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, what can we offer? We can offer receptivity.
We can offer anticipation of a mystery, new life, birth and re-birth, gifts of the spirit to be delivered by FedEx or Santa or the Holy Spirit on Christmas Eve, or any other time, to each heart open to those precious gifts.
"... store up treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor decay destroys, nor thieves break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there also will your heart be."
Matthew 6
Monday, December 17. 2012
Human rights abroad are not of real concern to President Obama. This is clearly signaled by the potential nominations of John Kerry and Chuck Hegel to be Secretary of State and Defense, respectively, two men who throughout their careers have buddied up to tyrants and downplayed oppression.
None are arguing for direct armed intervention in every case of brutality toward human rights, or the US would be invading at least half the members of the United Nations. But, where US foreign policy interests are aligned with defense of the human rights within a country, there is no justification to ignore or excuse or downplay the gross denial of basic rights, nor for that matter not to aid those aligned with Western values.
This is not a new concern unique to the current administration, but it is a heightened problem in the Obama lead-from-behind or the Obama skedaddle-from-town foreign policy.
The major human rights organizations have a spotty record of holding this administration’s feet to the fire. Should Kerry and Hegel be the policy-making and public face of US foreign policy, the major human rights organizations either better rise to their pretenses or be self-labeled as frauds.
Michael Rubin describes the issue:
It is no secret that when it comes to staffing, the most famous U.S.-based human rights organizations are skewed more toward Democrats than even universities. The most professional organizations try not to allow partisanship to corrupt analysis, but they are seldom successful….
The coming four years, however, should force real soul searching among the human rights community. President Obama’s reported pick of John Kerry to be secretary of state and the looming choice of Chuck Hagel to be secretary of defense will cement in his cabinet two figures that lack a moral compass in international affairs. If Kerry considered Bashar al-Assad “a dear friend” and a genuine reformer because they had a nice coffee and bike ride together, sympathizes with Latin America’s new populist dictators, and believes human rights should be shunted aside because Vladimir Putin is a sincere democrat, dictators will understand they have a free pass and democratic dissidents will realize they have no friend in the U.S. government.Hagel’s gut instincts are even worse: He is not naïve like Kerry, but rather cold and callous when it comes to human rights. His instincts are to dismiss his opponents’ worst excesses as a domestic affair. Hagel embraces traditional appeasement, unaware that rather than satiate dictators, it only emboldens them. It won’t take long for dictators to understand that, with both Kerry and Hagel at the helm, they will have carte blanche to repress and murder their own people in a manner unseen for decades
.…The question for the human rights community will be if they will hold water for such men and confirm the political corruption which infuses the professional human rights community.
A prime example of the hypocrisy of a leading human rights organization, Human Rights Watch, is 9/11 truther, virulent anti-Israel pro-Hamas apologist Richard Falk's membership on its Board of Directors. The anti-Israel animus in President Obama's potential appointments of Kerry and/or Hegel are described by Caroline Glick.
Spam University
The Third Annual Nigerian Email Conference
HESCHMEYER: Radical feminism waging the real war on women
Reid vs. the filibuster
The Coming Regulatory Black Hole - Thousands of new proposed regulations, delayed by the election, will be issued over the next few months.
I Am Adam Lanza’s Mother
Gun Crime Soars in England by 35% Where Guns Are Banned
Surprise! 40% Of Democrats Own Guns
Media Sets Gun Control Narrative, Shuts Down Mental Health Debate
Volokh: A Thought Experiment Related to School Shootings
Fund:
Until the Newtown horror, the three worst K–12 school shootings ever had taken place in either Britain or Germany.
and
Economists John Lott and William Landes conducted a groundbreaking study in 1999, and found that a common theme of mass shootings is that they occur in places where guns are banned and killers know everyone will be unarmed, such as shopping malls and schools.
At Jacobson:
I sometimes wonder whether black Americans would be happy or disappointed to know how little most white Americans think about race. And more and more, I think they’d be disappointed. Or mad.
Green Grift: Solar Firms Under Investigation for Inflating Costs
ObamaCare Will Bring Bureaucracy, Endless Rules And Coercion, But Improve Nothing
'Israel and 1938 Czechoslovakia are similar'
"Israel Through the Eyes of a Christian Sojourner,”
Muslim Country With 25% Slave Population Elected VP of UN Human Rights Council
What North Korea's Rocket Launch Tells Us About Iran's Role
Sunday, December 16. 2012
 COME EMMANUEL, GOD WITH US!
In more ways than one, we are waiting in darkness. Isaiah prophesied Jesus’ birth, saying, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light” (Isaiah 9:2).
Yet, the darkness will never totally go away. I’ve worked long enough in ministry to know that moral evil isn’t going to disappear, but the Gospel offers something much more subtle and helpful: “the light shines on the inside of the darkness, and the darkness will not overcome it” (John 1:5). Such is the Christian form of yin-yang, our own belief in paradox and mystery.
We must all hope and work to eliminate darkness, especially in many of the great social issues of our time. We wish world hunger could be eliminated. We wish we could stop wasting the earth’s resources on armaments. We wish we could stop killing people from womb to tomb.
But at a certain point, we have to surrender to the fact that the darkness is part of reality, and my logical mind does not know why. But the only real question becomes how to trust the light, receive the light, and spread the light. That is not a capitulation to evil any more than the cross was a capitulation to evil. It is real transformation into the unique program of the Crucified and Risen Christ. This is the one pattern that redeems reality instead of punishing evil or thinking we can eliminate it entirely. Our main job is to face it in ourselves.
Adapted from Preparing for Christmas with Richard Rohr
My pic is the Congregational Church of Hadlyme, CT, yesterday
Saturday, December 15. 2012
 Vanderleun: The Star
Vultures Quickly Gather to Exploit Tragedy in Connecticut
Is Obama Already Politicizing Sandy Hook Shooting?
Is the wind industry entering panic mode?
Taxing the Successful to Death
At the Ivies, Asians are the new Jews
Mead: Liberal, Educated “Experts” Run American Colleges into the Ground
In fifty years, if not much sooner, half of the roughly 4,500 colleges and universities now operating in the United States will have ceased to exist:
This past spring, Harvard and MIT got the attention of everyone in the higher ed business when they announced a new online education venture called edX. The new venture will make online versions of the universities’ courses available to a virtually unlimited number of enrollees around the world. Think of the ramifications: Now anyone in the world with an internet connection can access the kind of high-level teaching and scholarship previously available only to a select group of the best and most privileged students.
Showcase Campuses, Built With IOUs
High-Mileage Cars: Is 200,000 the new normal?
The man who invented the bar code also "perfected a system for delivering elevator music efficiently."
The Doctor Won’t See You Now -American health care is in a bureaucratic death grip.
The view at small businesses
Where’s Mitt (Cont’d)?
IPCC Admission Has Climate World Buzzing
Jindal Calls for OTC Birth Control Sales
Will China Have the World’s Largest Economy by 2030?
Obama To Troops: Don´t Insult The Taliban
MY SAY: NEWLY DISCOVERED! GENERAL GEORGE PATTON’S GUIDE FOR U.S. SOLDIERS FIGHTING IN WORLD WAR 11
Friday, December 14. 2012
Thursday, December 13. 2012
His daily post, Best of the Web Today at the WSJ site, is the wittiest and most engaging review of national news and random happenings that exists.
I envy his talent, his brains - and his cool gig. I think he has a small staff to help. A daily read with my cup of Dunkin.
Thanks, James, for what you do. Hope you are well-paid for it.
 Peaceable Kingdom: Cart pulled by lion, two sheep, and a bear. More cart pics here.
The Stark Geographic Inequality of the Home Mortgage Interest Deduction
Count me as opposed to the mortgage interest deduction
What art has come to: Bryan Saunders: portrait of the artist on crystal meth
Sippican Cottage Deeply Regrets The Use Of Forced Labor In His Factory
Pelosi Accuses GOP Of Lack Of Concern For Kwanzaa
A new play: Exposing Joseph Stalin’s Media Apologist
It's okay to be rich if liberal because it means you care
Michigan Stuns Labor as Blue Model Continues to Unravel:
Labor needs representation and many of the values that drew millions of working Americans into the labor movement endure. But few American institutions are as ill suited to the 21st century or have proved so inept at reorganization and reform as the unions.
Union rioters: Fat old white men
The Full Effects of Obamacare Just Starting to Make the News
Medical device tax hypocrites
Extreme Weather Belief Like A “pagan rite of human sacrifice to ensure a good harvest”
President Obama's tenure as president will have as one of its benchmarks one of the worst and longest-running unemployment records in recent history -- and he will own it all by himself.
Jews warned not to wear religious symbols in Copenhagen
Prescott and Ohanian: Taxes Are Much Higher Than You Think - The combined levies on labor income and consumer spending have seriously reduced the hours that Europeans work. The U.S. isn't too far behind:
Edward Prescott has shown that the U.S. average marginal effective tax rate is around 40%. This means that if the average worker earns $100 from additional output, he will be able to consume only an additional $60.
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Why 
The Boy Who Became a World War II Veteran at 13 Years Old
This "Lost Generation"